Since lysophospholipids have a higher surface-activity when compared to general phospholipids, it offers an improvement in emulsion stability, texture, and elasticity of food to that provided by phospholipids, while allowing a reduction in the amount of other emulsifiers. Thus, the lysophospholipids are known as a highly effective lipid formation when applied to foods. Other than food applications, it also has value as an emulsifier for cosmetics.
At present, the industrial preparative method of lysophospholipids is known to employ phospholipase A2. However, the problems are that this phospholipase A2 is an enzyme derived mainly from a porcine pancreas, and the emulsion by 1-acyl lysophospholipids is significantly low in the isolation rate of the oil layer compared to the emulsion by 2-acyl lysophospholipids (Lecture number P10, the 35th oil chemistry symposium).
Since phospholipases do not hydrolyze triglycerides, it will not produce diglycerides and monoglycerides even in the presence of triglycerides in the substrate, not interfering with the generation of lysophospholipids, which are the hydrolyzed products of phospholipids.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 6-62850, Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 7-31472, and Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 7-222592, the preparation methods for phospholipase A1 derived from fungus, such as filamentous fungus, have been developed. However, those require a long period of time for cultivation, and the operation to extract enzymes from a culture medium with bacterial bodies is cumbersome.
Phospholipase A1 exists in animal pancreases and livers, and microorganisms contribute to the metabolic turnover of lipids in cooperation with phospholipase A2. It is also a useful enzyme for analyzing the internal distribution of fatty acid molecules of phospholipids and for lipid biochemical research.    Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 6-62850    Patent document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 7-31472    Patent document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 7-222592